It has been well said that man has two bodies, one formed by the elements and one by the stars. Occult anatomy deals with both.
The two nervous systems of man's body-temple may be considered as a most wonderfully fashioned and complicated musical instrument upon which the human Spirit plays the glorious symphony of life. They were wrought largely under the guidance and supervision of the Lords of Form, the zodiacal Hierarchy of Scorpio, though not without the assistance of certain other important celestial Hierarchies.
In the Third Creative Day, designated by occult scientists as the Moon Period, the Lords of Wisdom (Hierarchy of Virgo) and the Lords of Individuality (Hierarchy of Libra) worked upon the embryonic bodies of mankind, which at this time possessed latent sense organs and glands that were the product of the great Second Creative Day, called the Sun Period.
The Lords of Libra worked particularly to modify and harmonize the currents of desire. The sympathetic nervous system had its origin in the Third Day and was at first perceptible to inner vision as desire currents. Later it was given form. under the activity of the Lords of Form. This constituted the whole of man's nervous system in this early stage of development. It was the only one provided for in the Moon Period. Not until the present Earth Period was the voluntary system added to the sympathetic. This system, too, was at first no more than currents of desire. These currents still remain though they now manifest through the chemical substance composing the nerves of the body and, as lines of force and color, they can be seen clairvoyantly flowing through the nerve cells.
When we realize that the nerves originate in desire, we come to understand that the all too prevalent "malady of nerves" which afflicts an ever-increasing number of people every year can be healed only through the purification and transmutation of their desires.
The sympathetic nervous system is "feminine" or "negative" in nature. It has a large cluster of nerve structures located in close proximity to the heart; thus the heart is intimately connected with desire. The heart being the center of love life, also correlates with desire, mental confusion and emotional tension Hence, nervous afflictions and heart maladies nearly always appear together. Often what is needed is repose of mind and spiritual contentment in contemplation of the divine order of the spiritual universe. When that is attained, healing results.
Astrologically, the heart is ruled by Leo, which is presided over by the Lords of Flame. The work of this Hierarchy in the regenerative process is to emanate a powerful spiritual force, fiery in nature, consisting of divine Love. This force unites with the Libran impulse toward universal beauty (harmony) flowing through the desire currents, their union culminating in the transmutation of desire. The desire body itself, as such, comes under the direct governance of Archangels correlated to Capricorn. It was the Lord Christ, supreme head of the archangelic Hosts, who came to earth to cleanse its psychic atmosphere of all base and unclean desires and to teach mankind the way of purity. "Blessed are the pure in heart," said He, "for they shall see God."
The cerebro-spinal or "masculine" nervous system had its origin, as previously stated, in the Fourth Creative Day-our present Earth period. It was given under the direction of the Lords of Mind (Hierarchy of Sagittarius). This nervous system is at present largely objective and materialistic in function. It, too, received form through the Hierarchy of Scorpio, Lords of Form, who in general have charge of the entire evolutionary process of this Earth Period. The voluntary nervous system assumes the major role in our present epoch, for it is the channel through which the mind is brought to its highest perfection. Through enlightening the mind the Ego becomes fully awakened. As a result of such development, which will occur in this Fifth or post-Atlantean Epoch of the present Earth Period, man will in some degree unfold the lowest or mental aspect of his threefold Spirit. Through painful experience the I AM in man is gradually acquiring dominion over his concrete mind, the activity of which is focused in the cerebrum. It is at the same time also extending its dominion into the precincts of the sympathetic system.
The sympathetic system may be said to be in a state of slumber but it will begin to come into its own in the Aquarian Age that we are now entering, for when the vernal equinox falls in Aquarius the autumnal equinox will fall in the opposite sign of Leo, the sign of the heart. The constellations where the equinoctial points fall are always of primary spiritual significance for the entire race. At the present time, the sympathetic system is the field of activity for great spiritual Beings who control our evolution. In the Aquarian Age a start will be made toward the conquest of this invisible domain of destiny in the human body; the sympathetic nervous system will be stimulated or awakened to heightened activity and mass consciousness will center in the deeper truths of Initiation. "There is a force called Kundalini," writes an ancient sage, "which is ever engaged in the work of creating the universe. He who knows Her will never again enter the mother's womb as a child nor suffer old age." When this comes to pass, the altar lights will again be aflame within the Holy of Holies.
The nerve cell is composed of two layers of tissue, white and grey. The white constitutes the nerve proper, and the grey the ganglion. The latter contains the nucleated nerves which are centered in a protoplasmic substance containing phosphorus. Phosphorus is a fire substance, in occult terminology, and acts as a center of attraction for the life principle emanating from the celestial Sun — the latter being the occultist's name for the invisible part of our solar orb, the vehicle of the Christ Spirit that we sense as electrical emanations.
The phosphorus content of the nerve cells is proportionately less during childhood and in advanced age; it is at its maximum during the prime of life.
This phosphorus or "fire essence" can be increased or decreased according to the mental bias of the individual toward spirit or toward matter. Material science naturally approaches this important element entirely from the physical viewpoint. Soon, however, its power as a spiritual magnet will be better known, and both meta-physician and material scientist will come to understand more fully just how and why a spiritual transmutation of the physical body is essential to real and permanent spiritual progress.
When in the Third Day (Moon Period) the sympathetic nervous system was fashioned by Angels under the direction of the Lords of Form, it was molded from plastic desire substance. In it were created seven centers which can perhaps best be described as nuclei of spiritual force. They were designed as focal points for spiritual forces operating in the field of what psychologists of today call the "subconscious" and which occultists know will sometime be part of the "conscious." Past, present, and future development of mankind may be traced in the two nervous systems.
The sympathetic system consists of a double chain of nerve ganglia on each side of the vertebral column, the fibers being distributed to the heart, stomach, intestines and other vital organs. These ganglia extend from the head to the coccyx. There are forty-nine in all, seven of them being of special importance.
The sympathetic nervous system, as noted, originated in the Moon Period, together with the beginnings of the desire body, and was the means whereby Angels and Archangels manipulated the sleeping consciousness of nascent human beings, projecting into them feelings and pictures, like a dream which impelled toward activity. This was the basis of animal instinct, for humanity of the Moon Period, though wholly different from our own Earth Period animals, was animal-like in nature.
It is this sympathetic system which gives rise to sensation. Man's consciousness does not now extend deep enough to enable him to follow cosmic processes mirrored in the sympathetic system, which even today recapitulates in a way the dreamy picture consciousness characteristic of Moon Period beings. The nerves of this system live a kind of dim inner life because in them are reflected cosmic forces which still guide the race as a whole in its evolutionary journey.
In the ancient Mysteries the Initiate was taught how to lull the voluntary nervous system to sleep and then to dip down into the sympathetic where he would see, as in a state of luminosity, the silent workings of mighty cosmic laws. This was right and proper in most ancient times, before the mind was sufficiently awakened to make the positive development possible; but by the thousandth year before Christ, in the middle of the Arian Age, this method was already becoming outmoded, and the work of the Christ set it aside altogether. The rending of the initiatory veil of the temple signified that the deep Mysteries of the cosmos were to be viewed in a new way, the Christ Way, by means of the positively developed spiritualized mind. The sympathetic system is the vantage ground of the so-called subconscious mind. A is subconscious because its functioning is controlled by cosmic intelligences of which the human being is today seldom aware. The time will come when all of the work done now by cosmic agencies will be done by the individual himself, in full waking consciousness. No one today, except the high Adepts, can see and control every vital function of his body, the beating of the heart, the digestion and assimilation of food, the conversion of food to energy and its use in the muscles, etc. This belongs to the future, but is foreshown in the laboratory when the chemist analyzes the elements that go to make up food and the physiologist analyzes the processes by which the body lives. Some day all such knowledge will be part of the human being's equipment from the moment of birth, and then there will be no more subconscious operating through the sympathetic system.
The colorless solar energy which pervades space is absorbed by man's vital body (etheric double) through the etheric spleen. From the etheric spleen solar energy flows to his solar plexus, the principal psychical center of the feminine system, whence it radiates through all the nerves of the body. By its refraction through the minute prisms of the vital body it is transformed into a beautiful rose color, recognized by clairvoyants as the characteristic color of the etheric double. The vital body is useless unless the nerves are charged with this vital solar fluid. The sympathetic cords rise from a center above the medulla oblongata, where esotericists can observe the initial intricate work of forming a second spinal cord. Corroborative of this is the interesting fact that within recent years post-mortem examination of the bodies of two spiritualist mediums revealed a clearly marked, though secondary, spinal cord.
The sympathetic nervous system is also the particular vantage ground of the vital body, as the solar fluid specialized by the vital body galvanizes these nerves into action. The vital body is for obvious reasons the vehicle through which Angels work in humanity toward the perpetuation of the species; through it are channeled the "life" forces, both those which sustain an individual body and those which sustain the race as a whole.
Ordinarily, sensations transmitted by the sympathetic nervous system are not as acute as those transmitted by the cerebro-spinal. It is part of the work of Initiation to become conscious of all vital processes, to feel and to know exactly what is going on in the body at all times, even during sleep; and by this knowing to learn the "arts and crafts of body-building" (basic to the true Masonry) whereby man is able to create immortal bodies in which to dwell upon earth.
The subconscious mind has its seat in the vital body and controls the sympathetic nervous system. It in turn governs the digestive and respiratory organs that build and restore the dense body, the circulation, glands, secretions, and excretions.
The sympathetic nerves are the nerves of organic life. They take charge of digestion, absorption and circulation. They regulate the rate at which the secretion of the glands is produced and attend to the processes of nutrition, repair and excretion. When the cerebro-spinal nerves are at rest, the sympathetic system is busy repairing the wear and loss which muscular and other tissues have undergone in the production of activity. It superintends the vegetative or organic life of animals and functions continuously.
Hear thou the Voice of Fire! That Holy and Formless Fire that darts and flashes through the hidden depths of the Universe and Man — Hear thou the Voice of Fire.
The seven vital centers which we have mentioned as being of major importance in the functioning of the sympathetic nervous system are largely dormant, but under the stimulation of positive spiritual thought they can be developed into whirling vortices of light and power. By reason of their shape, size, color, beauty, and fragrance they are likened to flowers; the Rose or Lotus blooming upon the cross of the body has come to be a familiar expression in mystic fraternities.
It is by a complete and unswerving dedication of self to the higher life, by the development of unalterable courage rooted in God, by the vision which never for a moment loses sight of its goal, that one can achieve the necessary development for awakening the spiritual body centers and bringing them into blossom.
The First Center is located in a bundle of nerve fibers which lies just in front of the sacrum bone at the root of the spine. Awakening this center is perhaps the most difficult of the entire septenary series. The sacrum is the "stone which the builders rejected" and it is also the stone which, according to promise, must become the "chief corner stone of the temple." This center is under the restrictive influence of Saturn and it requires the trained will and determined effort of the aspirant to bring about its awakening. It is described in oriental phraseology as "the crimson petalled lotus where the Kundalini sleeps." This is the center of that sacrificial fire of which all outer sacrificial ceremonials are but reflections. Its color in latency is a dull smouldering red; this changes with vivification into red-orange lights. With its increased activity comes awareness of certain psychic faculties.
Sir Edward Avalon writes in his Serpent Fire: "If the aspirant is devoted to the Lotus Path with heart unperturbed and concentrated mind, and dedicates his life to the Path which is pure, is faultless, is secret, he surely will find the Way of Liberation." He adds further, "The Root Center is beautiful by reason of the flowers strung upon her."
The Second Center is in the solar plexus which is the power center of the sympathetic nervous system. Here orange is the primal color. The blending of red and orange, together with sunlight yellow, makes this a glorious dazzling seat of light.
The solar plexus is the true seat of the "subconscious" mind in so far as the vital processes of the body are concerned. So long as this center is under the control of high spiritual powers, such as those which have guided the race evolution in past epochs, it is productive only of good. But when, by an act of will, the embodied Ego severs himself from the control of the Race Spirit, then he himself begins to control the cosmic forces which play through this center, and difficulty frequently results. Eventually the high Initiate has full and complete conscious control of the workings of the solar plexus forces, and with it he has full control of body processes which are open to his awareness. It is said that the full conscious and positive awakening of the solar plexus accompanies — or carries with it — the power of astral journeyings together with a clear and voluntary memory thereof; the reason for this being that the "subconscious" mind is being eliminated, and the "conscious" mind is taking over full control of the personality, both by day and by night. The "conscious" mind is the egoic awareness. Max Heindel has said that just as the chief work of the Atlantean Epoch was the receiving and awakening of the germ of mind conferred upon infant mankind by the Lords of Mind from Sagittarius, so the chief work of the Fifth Epoch is the development of the reason and logic of the Ego.
Some occult schools also describe a center located at the navel, but this "lotus" is really closely associated with the Root Lotus mentioned elsewhere. It is more active in the female body than in the male, having a special relationship to the Life Ether forces active in gestation and in the psychic processes attendant upon it. All such activities are under the control of the Race Spirit at the present time, but when the Ego "conquers" the various lotuses of the sympathetic system he brings their activities under the free control of his own will.
The Third Center is in the spleen, the center of solar energy for the entire nervous system. Its color emanation is rose tinged with green, and its forces vitalize all body organs. When fully active this center possesses the radiance of a pure, clear emerald stone, and has been described as being like "silver rain clouds with a young sun shining through. "
The corresponding spiritual aspect, when "conquered" by the egoic will, is heightened sensitivity, with the developments which naturally follow upon heightened sensitivity, such as awareness of "flying through the air" in the soul body when the physical body sleeps.
The Fourth Center is that of the heart. It is a glorious golden star that illumines the entire body and its radiations extend beyond the body in an aureole of glory. The power conferred by this heart center is memory of past earth lives; when fully functioning it gives ability to see into the future as well.
The "heart flower" also enables an individual to pass unharmed and at will through the four elements and to control all subhuman entities dwelling therein. The luminosity of the center has been likened to the "steady flame of a lamp in a windless place. " In its highest phase it shows golden rose petals touched with clear azure. This center marks the dividing line between the material and the spiritual. When one's heart is illumined, be is numbered among the spiritually elect, and can at will call invisible hosts to his aid.
The Fifth Center is in the throat. It is the center which develops under spiritual forces released in creative art, in the pursuit of beauty and through all high and holy inspirational impulses. Its color is azure, tinged with silver. Its power is that of healing through the spoken word. It has been said of the mystic vine that it sprouts in & sacrum, produces leaves in the solar plexus, buds in the heart and comes to full blossoming in the larynx. The following statement is well worth profound meditation: "Four are the grades of speech. Three are hidden and motionless — men speak the fourth."
The Sixth Center is located between the eyes near the root of the nose. This is the supreme power center of the body and is used to achieve far-reaching objectives by both the Brothers of Light and of Shadow. When this center is spiritualized the body is lifted beyond the vibrations of mere mortality, and its possessor, is numbered among the great Compassionate Ones who live only to serve and free mankind. Its color has been compared to the uniting of the Sun and the Moon. It is also at this point that the crown of thorns becomes a halo of light. Here one partakes of the "ocean of nectar" and is numbered among the immortals.
The Seventh Center crowns the top of the head. The crown jewels of a king are an outer semblance of this attainment of true spiritual kingship. All gross elements of the body are transmuted by the high potency of its pure white light. The personal now becomes completely submerged in the divine. Heaven and earth unite. This is the source of that Light which shineth in darkness and which the darkness (of the unillumined) comprehendeth not. This great center is the insignia of Adeptship. One possessing it is both birthless and deathless. In the words of John's Revelation: "He goeth no more out." In the outpouring of Heaven's effulgence all the colors of the spectrum have been merged and dissolved. The human has become divine. Man has attained unto godhood.
A word of caution: Let the student note that although these various centers are spoken of as "in the body," they really relate to cosmic forces playing through the egoic consciousness. The work of Initiation consists of the Ego's becoming aware of these cosmic forces and also of himself as a cosmic being in a spiritual universe inhabited by other cosmic beings, able to use the cosmic forces wisely and at will. The key to all positive spiritual development is the formula, "I AM THAT" — Virgin Spirit made in the image and likeness of God — which Moses learned from Egyptian hierophants.
As previously stated, it was in the Fourth Creative Day known as the Earth Period, that the cerebro-spinal or masculine nervous system was built under the guidance, principally, of the Lords of Form (Scorpio) and Lords of Mind (Sagittarius). These exalted Beings worked primarily in and with mental substance in the formation of the cerebro-spinal system as the Lords of Individuality (Libra) had employed Desire World material in building the sympathetic system. The principal center of this system is that most complicated and intricate organ possessed by man, the human brain.
When the sympathetic nervous system was developed sufficiently for the cosmos to be reflected in it, the cerebro-spinal system was added. The nerves springing from it connected with. those organs which would adjust man to the outer world-eyes, ears, and other media of sense perception. All of the senses belong to the Ego, or Spirit, which has built a set of organs to connect it with each of the worlds in which it functions.
Man no longer acts as a mirror for reflecting passively the laws of cosmic evolution, for interaction has been set up between the reflected world and the external world. Until the cerebro-spinal system was built, the desire body lived its cosmic life in a state of dull consciousness under the instructive guidance of the animal soul by means of the sympathetic system and through pictures which man saw within himself.
The clairvoyant faculty which man once possessed in its negative phase will be recovered, on a higher level and in a positive aspect, when, by a special process, the activity of the cerebro-spinal nervous system is brought under the full control of the will. It is this nervous system which is the avenue for the egoic consciousness and the desire body forces under its control. Because the desires run amuck, the voluntary nervous system plays the role of a destroyer, warring against the vital or life forces active in the vital body and sympathetic system. Before the Ego can "conquer" the lotuses of the sympathetic system, it must first conquer the desire nature and lower mind, which at present act as a unit. The lower mind must sever it's tie with the desire nature and yield to the rule of the higher mind or Virgin Spirit-as-Ego. Then the Ego is able once more to make use of the cosmic pictures which are reflected in the sympathetic nervous system and the ethers connected with it. The sympathetic nervous system is the stronghold of the vital body, while the cerebro-spinal nervous system is the stronghold of the desire body.
In future epochs, after the cerebro-spinal system is perfected, a technique will be given to all Initiates in the Mystery School whereby the subconscious processes, which are today under the control of cosmic intelligences, are brought into subjection to the Ego itself, as a self-conscious cosmic being. This does not mean that the Ego revives the ancient animal-soul consciousness, with its dreamy reflections of the outer world, but that in the man of tomorrow an instantaneous reflection of the whole surrounding universe will respond to an awakened god, reigning in divine authority over the Kingdom of Heaven within and the Kingdom of Nature without.
Herein is to be found a vast field for psychiatric operations and investigations. Our present-day discoveries touch only the outermost borders.
The most important work so far accomplished in the present Earth Period under the supervision of the Lords of Form and Mind, was the building of the cerebrum or frontal brain, the seat of reasoning mind and creative imagination; hence, the focussing of egoic powers in objective activities. The frontal brain lobe is termed the intelligence lobe; it controls the voluntary muscular system. The cerebrum is the principal center of the cerebro-spinal system, and has been described as the "plexus of a thousand branches.." This plexus is continuous with the central canal of the spinal cord through which the Fire Mist ascends in occult unfoldment. The cerebrum is located between the four principal intercommunicating ventricles of the brain. This cavity is continuously secreting fluid which is aptly termed the Nectar of Life. In average humanity this sacred life essence is under the influence of Neptune, the planet of Initiation.
Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way ... and few there be that find it," the Book of Books cautions us. This straight gate, this narrow way is discoverable in occult anatomy, clearly correlative to its metaphysical principles. The way extends from the cerebrum to the terminus of the spinal cord. This Way is also a river, the sacred river common to the mythologies of all peoples. It is the Nile of Egypt, the Ganges of India, and the Jordan of Palestine. To its mystic waters the Christed or anointed one must ever come to be baptized. It is also the laboratory of the spiritual alchemist, where be acquires the art of turning base metal into gold.
There are two magic "sperms," the Masters of Wisdom tell us. One is the miraculous white water that is under the influence of the Moon. The other is the glorious golden "sperm" under the influence of the Sun. "The greater the length of time in which they remain in the fire, the more colorful and glorious they become" — a statement corroborating the biblical teaching that "whom God loveth he chasteneth." The uniting of these two "sperms" or essences forms the ever-burning flame that is tended by the Vestal Virgin — also the Fire of alchemical lore, sacred to philosophy and to its Stone. It is the Mystic Swan of the Parsifal legend, the Hamsa Bird of oriental fame, and the mysterious albatross of the Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
Ancient sages have always stated that "man himself is both the source and the end, the matter and the laboratory. All the earth contains not so great a mystery and excellence as man reformed by God into His image and likeness."
The head is the precious jewel box of the Spirit or Ego and contains many rare gems which become powerful foci in various transmutation processes whereby the "old man" is put off and the "new man" is put on.
The thalamus, that great ganglion of the inner brain, is located near the center of the head. This part is an important sensory relay station — its medial part is concerned with smell; the lateral part with taste and sensation. The two parts are separated by the third ventricle. On the posterior side is the pineal gland, the candle or All-Seeing Eye which, when awakened, illumines the entire human temple. On the anterior side is the pituitary gland. These two glands are the two great laboratories for the final transmutation or spiritualization of the masculine-feminine essences as the human temple is changed from "a den of thieves" into "a house of prayer."
The medulla oblongata, located at the base of the skull, is part of the feminine branch and is the conducting medium whereby the spinal cord contacts other portions of the brain. The greatest number of nerves in the body are located at this point, making it the chief repository of nerve force and, therefore, one of the primal foci for spirit inflow and the work of regeneration. Almost all persons will testify to the extreme sensitiveness of this center.
The streams of nerve force intersect in the medulla, causing this point to become the Golgotha of the body, the place of crossing. Nearby, however, is the pons varolli or Tree of Life, whose ascending spires or branches appear to lift symbolically toward the higher center of regeneration or Resurrection, the pineal gland or crown of the head. Thus we bear within ourselves the Way of Calvary and the glory of the Resurrection.
Most important of all the nerve centers are those belonging to the head, represented symbolically in Golgotha, the place of the skull.
We learn from the writings of the Church Fathers that certain heretical schools of the city of Alexandria in Egypt taught that there was in the brain a mysterious fiery essence, which found its way downward through a certain reed-like channel to the organs of generation; and they said this fiery force, which they likened to a serpent, must be raised up again to the head.
Now most modern occultists state that the Root Center of the force known as Kundalini (which is also identified with its channel, called the Sushumda), lies at the base of the spine; but there is another classic text in the scriptures of India which states that the true home of this force is in the brain. Evidently the Christians of Alexandria followed this latter teaching, and it is significant that Max Heindel says little or nothing of the centers in the lower part of the body, but places primary emphasis upon the centers in the head. Where Max Heindel says that the Life Spirit (Christ Within, a Living Fire) is reflected in the vital body, these ancient Christs said that the life fire passed downward from the brain, and, under the guidance of the archangelic Race Spirits, was used to further the racial goals of evolution. The Christian Initiate conquers this fire-force, and leads it upward once more to its true home, the brain. There the threefold Virgin Spirit reigns as the Ego; and of this Ego Max Heindel says again that it is threefold when viewed from the physical world, but that it is really ONE, the Virgin Spirit itself. Similarly, the fire forces which work through the nerve centers seem, from the vantage point of the physical world, to be divided into seven, or forty-nine, or even more, but it is in reality ONE, the Fire Force of pure Spiritual Being.
The analysis of the brain and its parts, therefore, is of the utmost importance to the neophyte, and all that has been said of the values of the various nerve centers applies with double force to the centers of the brain.
Every least segment of the nervous system has its corresponding center in the brain, a fact well known to physical science, and which is also known to the occultist.
The ability to function fruitfully on inner planes is dependent upon the purity of the life of the investigator. This implies far more than physical chastity, it involves purity of mind and motive as well. Nor is physical chastity to be identified with mere denial of sex expression through repression. Great harm has been done by fanatics who believe that out of such negative abstinence will flower a spiritual life. The occultist knows that one is not really chaste until chastity flows outward from the soul, naturally and easily, for as long as the sex nature is a source of trouble even though controlled, it is not being fully transmuted into the higher functions of the Spirit. Chinese sages say that the man who finds pleasure in vice or pain in virtue is a novice in both. This is true in the work of regeneration. He to whom the path of discipline is still painful is a novice and should know himself as such; only when it is a joy may be be confident of the Crown.
There is a close interaction between the brain and generative organs. The brain and larynx were both built by means of conserved creative force. Sex energy is creative on whatever plane it is used. By conservation and transmutation this mighty power will enable man to produce beauties and marvels in both art and science that are as yet undreamed of. When the sacred Fire force is lifted to the brain it fills man, not with passion, but with light. Those who attain to this state are heralds of the new race.
In the Earth Period, when the dense body of infant humanity was being formed, a part of the sex force was directed upward and used for building the brain, larynx, and nervous system. The present mode of generation belongs to a transient phase of man's evolution. The organs of generation will eventually atrophy and their function will be taken over by the heart, larynx, and brain. Creation of forms will be by mental or psychic means, that is, by the projection and materialization of images. We have a hint, very imperfect to be sure but still a hint, of how this may be accomplished in materializations through spiritistic channels. Such spirit materializations, while helpful as hinting of future marvels for the race, are no more like the perfect process than the first airplane is like the jet-propelled type now coming into use and giving wonderful promise of interplanetary travel. Mystery Schools are already in possession of this knowledge, and their great Adepts are able to create bodies for themselves out of cosmic substance through their own will and imagination, thus demonstrating their mastery over life and death.
The intimate relationship between the brain and the creative organs is shown by the fact that excessive abuse of the latter invariably weakens the former, this by reason of the fact that both draw upon the same energy for functioning.
The Christ gave this inner teaching to His Disciples in the parable of the barren fig tree, recorded in the twenty-first chapter of Matthew, verse nineteen. The fig tree is a symbol of fecundity and fruitfulness. The fruit of the tree is reminiscent of the uterus in shape, while the leaves are reminiscent of the male organs of generation. The words of the Master in condemning the tree, "Let no fruit grow on thee hence-forward forever," have reference primarily to the present mode of procreation. Man now generates; the new race will learn to create. At present the process of procreation is largely physical; it is destined to become predominantly spiritual.
The "sacred bone " or sacrum is a triangularly shaped bone wedged in the lower part of the back between the hip bones. This is the symbolic altar of the body-temple. In close proximity sleeps the serpent power which, when awakened, becomes the great sacrificial Fire whereby as each gross element is refined, its corresponding sense is likewise rarefied and sensitized. This Fire "leads and lifts upward those forces which in mortal man drag downward and are opposed to the divine and celestial essences. Herein we find the analogue of all biblical burnt offerings and altars of purification.
When this mystic Fire reaches the pineal gland or Crown, the forces of the lower and higher natures, the human and the spiritual man, are united. The Great White Work is complete. In very truth, "the Father and I are One."
Instead of seeking physical gratification when conscious of the surging impulses of the lower nature, if an earnest aspirant will focus his imagination upon whatever he desires to create — whether it be a poem, an invention, a picture, a musical composition or some material demonstration such as a home or a new business venture — he will find that a double purpose is served. The objective demonstration will be accelerated and the process of regeneration within his body will, at the same time, be noticeably stimulated.
Meditation upon high and holy subjects has power literally to transform forces impregnating the sexual fluids; for these fluids are really carriers of etheric force, the true creative agent. By consciously directing pure love currents from the heart into the creative centers of the brain, sexual activity may be transmuted into activities of mind and spirit, with a corresponding birth upon the mental and spiritual plane.
Every cell of the body is, or can be made, subject to absolute control by the mind. It is possible to raise the body above the forces of physical passion and to center one's whole being in the currents of spirit.
The lotus blossom in all its purity and loveliness, having its roots in dark mud at the bottom of a pool, sending up its stalk through water and flowering on the surface in sunshine and air, is strikingly symbolic of the anatomical mystery known biblically as the Red Sea — that sea of the lower nature whose life forces the Spirit lifts and transmutes into a soul (flower) body of luminous beauty and fragrance.
The twelve pairs of cranial nerves are an important factor in the process of regeneration. These nerves pass from under the surface of the brain through openings in the bones of the cranium and distribute their fibers principally to the organs of sense. These nerves are:
1. Olfactory — nerves of smell.
2. Optic — nerves of vision.
3. Motor oculi — movers of the eye.
4. Trochlear — supplying one of the muscles of each
eye.
5. Trigeminal — supplying muscles of face, lower
jaw, and tongue.
6. Abducens — supplying muscles that turn eyeballs
outward.
7. Facial — sending fibers to muscles of the face.
8. Auditory — the nerves of hearing.
9. Glosso-pharyngeal — supplying larynx, tongue,
pharynx.
10. Pneumogastric — supplying larynx, lungs, heart,
stomach, liver.
11. Spinal Accessories — terminating in muscles of the
neck.
12. Hypoglossal — supplying muscles of the tongue.
At present these nerves are concerned largely with the physical well-being of the body, but as the work of the senses is extended through development of clairvoyance, clairaudience and related psychic faculties, they will become veritable carriers of light, making the body responsive to inner-plane vibrations in a degree entirely unknown to the average person at the present time. We cannot repeat too often that man is indeed a god in the making.
The spiritualization of these twelve pairs of cranial nerves is described in Revelation 21, 22.
Of these twelve pairs none are more important in spiritual work than the pneumogastric. This pair has been called by those who know something of its future development the "passage-way for the Breath of the Holy Ghost." It is the royal highway between Jerusalem (heart) and Bethlehem (head) by which the Spirit withdraws the forces of the seed atom at the time of transition called death.
As the heart awakens spiritually, its powerful emanations will be lifted to the brain by way of the pneunogastric nerves. The brain will then be an organ for contacting spiritual truth directly; it will not be the limited instrument it is now, by which we see at best "as through a glass darkly." The brain of the spiritually illumined is the "upper chamber" dramatized biblically in the story of the sacred communion of the Last Supper. The twelve Disciples are represented anatomically in the twelve pairs of cranial nerves.
Six of the cranial nerve pairs are related to the cerebrum or masculine brain, and six to the cerebellum or feminine brain; in the same way the Disciples are grouped into two classes, six of whom respond to the masculine or occult, and six to the feminine or mystic ray.
In describing the illumination of the brain Paracelsus writes: "In the brain pan of the skull lies a mysterious nerve substance like some cloud piece in materialization. This cloud substance in the brain is the center of the etheric brain and is influenced by the firmament on one side and by the miasma of the earth on the other side."
There are seven principal cavities or ventricles in the brain concerned principally with true spiritual development. The Disciples also were divided into groups of five and seven, the seven being the most deeply occult and highly advanced of the immortal Twelve.
The seven brain cavities have sometimes been called the seven-stringed lyre of Apollo and also the Seven Great Harmonies. Elsewhere we designate them the Harp of David. They are filled with an ethereal essence highly responsive to spiritual impulses. In them heart memories may be captured.
These seven ventricles bear the same relationship to the cerebro-spinal system that the seven flower centers bear to the sympathetic system. They represent the supreme development of the system to which they belong.
The first, second, and fourth of these cavities lie right and left of the center of the brain. The third lies below them and connects the pineal and pituitary glands. The fifth is below the third, in the region of the cerebellum. The sixth originates in the brain, passes downward through the spine and ends opposite the sacro-coccygeal. ganglion at the spine's end. The seventh, the consummation or synthesis of them all, also lies in a cavity of the skull.
The highest initiatory development of our time is concerned with the cerebro-spinal nervous system and the seven head centers belonging to it. As one progresses spiritually these cavities glow with light increasingly until, in the fully developed, they iridesce in the septenary colors and sound forth the seven tones belonging to the sevenfold planetary chain.
Large areas of the brain are not used at present because we have no thoughts or emotions as would arouse them into activity. As we extend the range of our power of thought and feeling, however, the Ego will awaken these areas and begin to express itself through them; then, by means of convolutionary depths, such areas will be greatly increased. An idiot has a very small area because his brain is almost devoid of convolutions. An intelligent individual is continually adding to his brain area by multiplying and deepening the convolutions. The illumined Initiate who has fully developed the organism of the head as described brings into activity brain areas usually dormant.
The processes of evolution which are constantly lifting mass consciousness to higher levels are also purifying and refining the physical bodies of the race. There were many practices common a century ago which are considered barbarities today. From the study of anthropology we learn how the human form has developed from a gross bestial object into the light, graceful body we know. The Spirit has reshaped and refined the physical body until it has become a suitable temple for its indwelling. The ideal body was demonstrated by the great Way-shower in the mystic Rite of the Transfiguration.
The spinal cord is continuous with the medulla oblongata through the foramina or large opening in the occipital bone. The cord is enclosed in a canal formed by the bones of the vertebral column.
A very minute canal, continuous with cavities in the middle of the brain, runs through the center of the cord. This is the path of the Fire Mist that operates under control of Neptune, the planet of divinity. When fully functioning it lifts men into godhood. The rising of this Fire Force makes for the true resurrection, and in it is the significance of the words of the Christ: "If I be lifted up I shall draw all others unto me." Jacob's ecstatic ladder-vision describes a like experience. Every cell and atom of the body is made new as the Fire ascends.
The spinal cord has thirty-one pairs of nerves which convey motor impulses from the brain to the voluntary nervous system. These correlate to the days of the solar month. Animals have twenty-eight pairs of spinal nerves. These belong to the feminine or sympathetic nervous system and are correlated to the days of the lunar month. The animal kingdom is governed by the Moon, symbolic of the feminine Spirit of Nature. Spiritualizing the last three pairs of nerves will enable man to contact a higher force than he is aware of today. To accomplish this is part of the work assigned humanity in the present Earth Period, the powers of the cerebro-spinal nervous system being evolved with the aid of the Lords of Form and the Archangels.
The spinal cord is divided into three parts which enclose a hollow tube. The two nerve ganglia rising on either side of the cord belong to the, sympathetic system. The nerve essence flowing through the left ganglia, when spiritualized, becomes a flaming light essence termed, in oriental phraseology, the Ida. That which flames through the, right ganglia is called the Pingala.
The Ida and Pingala are feminine and masculine or negative and positive nerve forces that accompany the. ascending Fire Mist. These dual currents are oppositely polarized. They meet and cross each other in each of the spinal chakras or flower centers,of the body, before reaching their final terminus in the two spiritual organs of the head, the pineal and pituitary glands. In their ascent these currents, by means of their intersections along the spinal chakras or flower centers of the body, before reaching their final terminus in the two spiritual organs of the head, the pineal and pituitary glands. In their ascent these currents, by means of their intersections along the spinal chakras or flower centers of the body, before reaching Mercury, the ancient Grecian insignia of the Staff of Life.
In his Serpent Power, Sir Arthur Avalon describes the forces of the Ida as being pale, of the nature of the Moon and as very embodiment of the essence of nectar. The Pingala, he continues, is of the nature of the Sun, and is a lustrous red like the filaments of the pomegranate flower. He saw in a vision the Ida and Pingala together with the "central Fire" in a trembling aura of rosy light and azure combined with a white fire which rose up to the brain and flamed out in a winged radiance on either side of the head.
He describes the central path of the Fire Mist as being subtle as a spider's thread as it pierces all the lotuses along the spinal canal. "She is beautiful like a chain of lightning and shines in the minds of sages. She is the awakener of pure knowledge, the embodiment of all bliss, and her true nature is pure consciousness. She unbars the entrance gate into the region of Ambrosia, the land of the Immortals. She is the world-bewildering. She produces melodious poetry. Her lustre is like the strong flash of young lightning. Her murmur is like the indistinct hum of swarms of love-mad bees. She shines in the cavity of the canal like a chain of brilliant lights."
Here within the, body-temple is to be found the origin of the Rosary devotions. Heaven and earth unite within man; all mysteries of the celestial and the terrestrial are recapitulated in him.
The word Kundalini means "coiled." In the unillumined this powerful cosmic Fire force sleeps coiled in the lower part of the spine. The secret of awakening and lifting this sleeping Fire Mist was first taught in China, having been brought into that country by the priests of Atlantis-which explains why the dragon is symbolic of the writhings of the great stellar forces above and of the spinal spirit Fire in man below.
With the final stage of this ascension of the powerful threefold spiritual force — the Ida, Pingala and Kundalini — to the head, and its transmutation in that holy of holies, there appears a gleaming triangle of light which encloses the third or spiritual eye, the pineal gland. In this fact we discover the occult origin of the well-known Masonic symbol of the All-Seeing Eye enclosed within the Triangle.
As illumination proceeds, the Fire Mist grows and expands in intensity and volume. The newly awakened Fire flashes from center to center and we quote, "The aura around the Ida is like moonlight and pale azure. The Pingala is illumined with a soft rosy opalescence. The Kundalini is transmuted into an intense golden white fire which curls upward spirally." As one becomes increasingly freed from physical desires, the serpent within gradually uncoils and the illumined one finds himself encircled, as it were, by a fountain of fire.
Biblically, this serpent mystery is shadowed forth in the Brazen Serpent which Moses bequeathed to Israel and which for many centuries was guarded in the sanctuary of both Tabernacle and Temple. The Mystic Serpent is found also in the Orphic Mysteries centered in Dionysus, in the Egyptian Osiris worship, in the ancient Taoism of China and the Rajah Yoga of India, to mention but a few of the aspects under which the Serpent Wisdom ("Be ye wise as serpents") is known in the world.
By means of this serpent fire the illumined and regenerated body is made, that body which is destined to rival in beauty, color, and fragrance the most perfect blossoms of the plant kingdom. The significance of the knights' mission to find for King Arthur a bride with a "flower body" is to be found in this attainment. It is the secret of the betrothal of the pure and holy Sir Galahad to a maiden bearing the symbolic name of "White Flower." And, as we have mentioned previously, it is the secret of the title Jesus of Nazareth, which points to the Master Jesus as the Flower of the Sons of Seth. The beautiful mystic medieval legends all conceal definite steps and degrees belonging to the path of exalted spiritual Illumination and Initiation. They are threads of gold in that magic carpet of wisdom bequeathed to the ages by Solomon the Wise, whereon the soul may fly to adventures of pure spirit above and beyond all mortal limitations. There is but one Wisdom for all ages and all men, that Wisdom which was in the beginning with God, and it was God, and without that Wisdom nothing was made that was made.
The spinal cord is composed of thirty-three vertebrae or segments. It is between these that the nerves branch out in pairs to all portions of the body.
There are seven cervical vertebrae which correlate to the seven planets: the first to Saturn; the second to Jupiter; the third to Mars; the fourth to the Sun; the fifth to Venus; the sixth to Mercury; the seventh to the Moon.
In the thorax, attached to the ribs, are the twelve dorsal vertebrae. These correlate to the twelve zodiacal signs, also to the twelve stones set up by Joshua which remain for a sign unto this day."
The five lumbar vertebrae are in the middle of the body and correlate to the five elements, Fire, Earth, Air, Water, and Ether, collectively under Libran rulership for in these the balance of the body is maintained.
The five remaining segments which fuse into the coccyx are under Scorpio, signifying the serpent path whereby, through regeneration, we may attain the wisdom of the gods. This is summed up in the words of Christ, "Be ye wise as serpents and harmless as doves."
Thirty-three is a mystic number and totals the years required for David's Initiateship by which he could unite the forces of Israel and Judah (head and heart). Only thus could he rule as king in Jerusalem (City of Peace) for the cabbalistic forty years. Thirty-three degrees should confer upon the Masonic candidate a similar spiritual status. This mystic number marks also the consummation in perfection of the earth mission of our blessed Lord, Christ Jesus.
We have shown how, since the brain and reproductive systems are connected by means of the spinal cord, regeneration is accomplished by the lifting of the creative energy from the lower to the higher centers of expression. The energy which formerly was used for sense gratification or for the perpetuation of the species is then used for spiritual self-expression and the upbuilding of the Ego. In the Bible this work is indicated in the parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins. "Keep your lamp trimmed and burning" is the soul slogan for everyone who aspires to enter the conditions of the New Age in which pure living is an absolute essential. To keep the body filled, not with animal passion but with celestial Fire, is the prerequisite of Initiation, for it is only as the spinal Fire substance is uplifted that the brain centers may be awakened to their new activity; and that activity, like the flame of a lamp, must be sustained by the oil which is carefully conserved in right living. Nor is all danger eliminated when this stage is reached; if, after the lamp of the Spirit has been lighted in the brain, the individual returns to the ways of the flesh, his resulting state is worse than his unawakened condition, even inviting insanity and death.
The threefold refining Fire of regeneration which ascends through the spine is under the astrological rulership of the fiery triplicity. The purification begins in the generative center under Sagittarius; it rises to the heart under Leo; and thence ascends to the head under Aries. As this sacred Fire rises in ever-increasing volume and intensity it unites with a luminous ethereal substance emanating from the blood, and the amalgamated essences then awaken the spiritual eye, the optic thalamus, demonstrating the ancient maxim, "If thine eye be single, thy whole body sball be full of light."
The following by Jacob Boehme is also pertinent to the subject: "As the light goeth forth from the Father, into the Son wherefore ariseth the Holy Ghost, working through the different senses; if the spirit is pleased therewith, it bringeth forth the same to the heart, and the heart giveth it to the passages or issuing forth powers from the entire body." Note, too, Paracelsus: "The red blood from the Lion and the white gluten from the Eagle, when you mix and coagulate them according to the old process — you have the tincture of Philosophers."
In these lines we have the secret of transmutation. Redeemed and emancipated from evils and limitations that now hold mankind in bondage, the race of the New Day will be motivated by love. It will have experienced the new birth by water and by fire referred to by the Master when instructing Nicodemus. The process of occult redemption leaves its mark upon man. It was that, not mere wounds and bruises upon his body, to which Paul referred when he declared, " I bear upon my body the marks of the Christ. " These marks were changes in his inner life and development; they were the glorious radiations of a regenerated, redeemed man, one who had become an heir and a joint heir with Christ throughout the ages.
When the mystic Marriage Rite has been consummated by the Spirit, the two columns of the human body-temple, or the two nervous structures with their attendant organisms, will also function as a completely integrated unit. Man will be lifted beyond the limitations of the sense world. Glorious and immortal, he will have become a bright and radiant Son of the Morning.
As above, so below. God in manifestation is male-female. So also is man, made in His image, masculine-feminine. It is well known to anatomists that the male body carries embryonic female organs and the female, embryonic male organs. In the past spiritual illumination manifested through the sympathetic or feminine (negative) system, as we have already observed. At present first-hand attainment consists in awakening the centers of the cerebro-spinal or masculine (positive) system. It is the union of the forces using these two systems that will produce the godlike body of the superman, the Initiate hermaphrodite (Hermes-Aphrodite), the perfect masculine-feminine body.
In the book of Job, that great drama of Initiation, Job asks who is able to come to him with the double bridle of the Leviathan, a reference to the dual nerve forces in their perfected interaction. The forty-first chapter describes the powers and attributes of one in whom such a condition has been established. In the opening chapter of Genesis we read, "Male and female created he them," in His own image and likeness, all-good. Herein is described the original archetypal Pattern of perfected interaction between the two poles of spirit, which is called in esoteric parlance the exalted Rite of the Mystic Marriage.
The seven centers of the sympathetic system, the seven "flowers" located upon the cross of the body, belong to the feminine pillar of the temple; the seven centers of the brain belong to the cerebro-spinal system and are referable to the masculine pillar. The forces flowing through these two systems converge and blend in the larynx, which thus becomes a marriage altar. From this conjunction of powers emanates the Word which is spirit and which is life.
The spiritual evolvement of early man in Lemuria and Atlantis dealt entirely with the centers of feminine force; hence, many leaders of that first civilization were in the main Egos embodied in feminine vehicles, Egos in whom the cosmic Feminine was more active. Thus the apocryphal legends tell us of Heva, the first prophetess, who, under the tutelage of "Serpents," prophesied of this present world. Spiritual evolution in the post-Atlantean races is concerned with awakening the brain centers related to the masculine principle. The Christ (or new Adam) is, therefore, the prophet prophesying "better things of the world to come."
The work of the New Age must inevitably include the blending ofthe masculine and feminine principles leading toward Initiation and ultimate Liberation.
The seven positive brain centers are reflected, so to speak, in the seven negative or spinal centers. The Western method of development hinges almost wholly upon work with the brain centers. These, when vivified, automatically stimulate into renewed activity the psychic faculties of the sympathetic system, awakening them from their age-long sleep in materiality. But if the work is directed toward the sympathetic system first, nothing of value can result from reawakening the old primeval negative clairvoyance of Lemuria and early Atlantis, the "trance" condition which is too little in harmony with modern requirements. Psychological experiments have shown how ordinary people, in an hypnotic trance, may sometimes demonstrate clairvoyance relating to the material world; that is, they see outward conditions of our own present world by means of inward vision. They can describe places and people many miles distant, and they can see the organs of the body. This is the way in which the outer world was first contacted in ancient Lemuria, under the guidance of the Lucifer Spirits who used women as their tools. Consciousness was transferred gradually from inner to outer planes until, in the middle of the Atlantean Epoch, material consciousness had become fixed for most of the human race.
Negative clairvoyance recapitulates this ancient type of consciousness. Under the positive method, using brain centers as foci for the spirit, all necessity for trance is eliminated. No longer is one required to go into trance in order to see what is happening beyond the horizon; be has only to focus his mind in the desired direction and he sees. Thus we read of the Buddha, the Fifth Epoch prince-Initiate, sitting at dawn, looking out over the world to discover such souls as were in need of his ministrations.
Through uniting the forces of the two nervous systems there is produced an emancipated spiritual man characteristic of the New Age. In Revelation under the similitude of the Woman clothed with the Sun and crowned with the splendor of the twelve zodiacal Hierarchies, this glorious achievement is depicted for us as John foresaw it.
The steps of this ascension of the Fire Mist correspond to the principal events in the life of the Christ: the Nativity, the Baptism, the Transfiguration, the Rite of the Eucharist and the Mystic Marriage. All are, re-enacted within man's own body-temple. It is when the sacred Fire reaches the heart that the veil of Isis is rent and the wonders of both heaven and earth stand revealed.
The following excerpt from A. E. Russell's Candle of Vision — this Candle being the pineal gland or Third Eye — is a modern corroboration of ancient lore: "Once at the apex of intensest meditation I awoke that fire in myself, of which the ancients have written, and it ran up like lightning along the spinal cord, and my body was rocked with the power of it, and I seemed to myself to be standing in a fountain of flame, and there were fiery pulsations as of wings about my head, and a musical sound not unlike the clashing of cymbals with every pulsation; and if I had remembered the ancient wisdom I might have opened that eye which searched infinitude. But I remembered only with a half terror the danger of misdirecting this energy, for such was the sensation of power that I seemed to have opened the seal of a cosmic fountain, so I remained contemplative and was not the resolute guider of the fire . . . Normally I found this power in myself not leaping up titanically as if it would storm the heavens, but a steady light in the brain, the candle upon the forehead, and it was revealed in ecstasy of thought or power in speech, and a continuous welling up within myself of intellectual energy, vision or imagination . . . It is the Promethean Fire and only by mastery of this will man be able to ascend to Paradise."
Our modern mystic here wisely stresses the danger which inevitably accompanies the awakening of the sacred Fire Force before the aspirant has been sufficiently fortified through pure and spiritual living. He also writes: "Arid indeed this rousing of the fire is full of peril; and woe to him who awakens it before he has purified his being into selflessness, for it will turn downward and vitalize his darker passions and awaken strange frenzies and inextinguishable desires. The turning earthward of that heaven-born power is the sin against the Holy Breath, for that fire which leaps upon us in the ecstasy of contemplation of Deity is the Holy Breath, the power which can carry us from Earth to Heaven. It is normally known to man only in procreation, but its higher and mightier uses are unknown to him."
In these concluding lines we find the distinction between the terrestrial man and the celestial man of St. Paul. The one is the dust man belonging to the Old Age, the other the spirit man who will inhabit the New. The two nervous systems with their transmutations hold one of the important keys to the magnificent new spiritual or regenerative birth.
As the threefold spiritual Fire Mist ascends to the head, it divides and passes through the cranial nerves, surrounding and suffusing the head with a luminous golden halo. This force again unites in the vital center at the root of the nose. One who is able to follow this path of ascending Fire Mist with extended vision observes the triangle of light formed in the bead enclosing the pineal gland, now illumined through the pulsating effulgence of the seven ventricles, flashing and sparkling with all the brilliancy of a first magnitude star. It is in very truth a blue-white Sirius, the star diamond of our body-heaven.
Such an illumined one bears within himself the flaming signature of the Song of Songs: "My beloved is white and ruddy and chiefest among ten thousand" — in which high attainment one has found and unsealed the gates of Paradise.
— Corinne Heline
